Chabal's performance was a plus point for Sale

Laporte was in the crowd for the Sharks' 27-16 Heineken Cup loss to Stade Francais, where the number eight was the stand-out player.

"He surprised me. I was very happy with how he played. He put himself about more than usual," said Laporte.

"He's put himself back in the list of 40. His French future is down to him."

The more candidates there are for the France team, the more satisfied I am Bernard Laporte

Chabal, 29, earned the last of his 24 caps in the 43-8 win over Tonga in November 2005 but Laporte hinted there could be more to come.

"I spoke with Sale director of rugby Philippe Saint-Andre and Seb after the game," said Laporte.

"I like him, he is a fabulous guy and popular in the squad. He knows that and we have a very good relationship.

"When I come to watch him, he doesn't want to have a bad game, and I am happy to see him performing.

"The more candidates there are for the France team, the more satisfied I am."

Laporte says he believes Chabal can play anywhere in the back row, but said his previous displays for the national side have been frustratingly erratic.

"If he touches the ball 10 times, if he makes 10 runs, he makes an impression," he said.

"But on the other hand, there have been a lot of times where he walks around, where he isn't efficient for the team."

Sale's defeat all but ended their Cup hopes and afterwards Chabal was more interested in talking about the team than his personal performance.

"I'm happy with my performance but it's a team game and I don't really want to talk about myself, just the team," he said.

"I think we should be quite happy with how we played. We gave 120%, I think we can be very proud.

"At the start we looked like we were worried about what they could do and we were just watching them go past us. But then we started to play.

"Everyone knows it will now be hard for us to make the quarter-finals."